When TASTE launched back in early February, our main goal was to publish an online magazine reported from the frontlines of today’s quickly moving food culture. We planned to dive into America’s increasingly diverse pantry—where fish sauce and za’atar sits next to benne seeds and almond flour—and really tackle the issues facing today’s home cook. Like, why you shouldn’t stress about pasta names, and the extreme pleasure of Brazilian cheese bread. We’ve had a blast publishing a really varied range of stories (hygge, anyone?), but from time to time we will zoom in on a subject we think deserves our time, and yours as well. We call this collection of stories a TASTE Issue.

For our first Issue, we wanted to tackle the cooking traditions of India, and how chefs and home cooks alike in America are both rooted in tradition, and reshaping what it means to be an Indian-American cook. According to the 2015 Census, some 4 million Americans identify as Indian in heritage. It’s a topic as large and diverse as India is!

In this lineup of stories and recipes, we’ve narrowed things down a bit. Andy Wang makes butter chicken with the unfiltered chefs behind Los Angeles hotspot Badmaash. Priya Krishna reveals why Indian bakers eschew eggs, and Gabriella Gershenson visits the Brooklyn home of cookbook author Chitra Agrawal. We cook lamb masala at a mountain house outside Asheville, North Carolina, and pay homage to the groundbreaking cookbook My Bombay Kitchen. Plus, we’ve rounded up plenty of recipes to save for a rainy day—or, perhaps, dinner tonight. We hope you enjoy this special issue. We’ve had a blast putting it together. —Rachel Khong & Matt Rodbard

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Many years of eating, cooking, and writing about food have left Scott Hocker with an ever-growing cookbook collection. Here he cracks one open to re-create a dish tied to a distant, though fond, food memory.